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2 Comments

• #1 by Santo Leto on 2009/04/12 - 4:01 pm

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  Hello Matt,

  Thank you for taking time to write this post.
  All your questions are very relevant and I agree with you on many points.

  Please find below my answer on behalf of HoneySoftware, the software house behind HoneyMonitor.

  >1. Why, in this age of multiple OSes battling each other for market share, would you write an application that is OS specific?

  I agree with you that in general it is much better to have cross-platform products and in particular, for a DB Tool, this is much more important.

  However, we should beware that sometimes having a cross-platform product imply making many compromises on features. I think it’s up to ISVs to find the right balance.

  Support for other platforms is on our todo list.

  >Every app should run in a vendor neutral web browser unless there’s a really really good reason.

  I’m not sure I agree with you on this point.

  I think cross-platform is the key point and that today there is (still) space for desktop cross-platform applications.

  In general, I think web applications will be more and more in the future. I agree with you that web applications simply users’ life and again I think it’s a question of compromise left to ISVs.

  I definitely agree with you that each decision should be taken after a design process and should be driven by good reasons.

  >Monitoring software, are you kidding? Monitoring software must be vendor neutral and web-based.
  >I will never use anything that ties me to windows or linux or osx, it has to be cross platform. End of story.

  I totally agree with you. If we are talking about a monitoring solution, then it should be vendor neutral and web based. I think this is required by the “monitoring” concept itself. In fact, you want to be able to connect to your monitoring application even if you are not in your office.

  You can’t do this (so far) with HoneyMonitor because it’s a desktop application. Please note that HoneyMonitor is a tool for the administration and monitoring of the MySQL database server, not only monitoring. I think if you develop a monitoring solution only, then it would be easier to make it run on a web-browser. However, you can also develop web-based applications for both the administration and monitoring (of course, it could be more complex, but one can do it).

  From an End-User point of view, I think a web based application for the administration and monitoring of MySQL is the best and from an ISV point of view, it’s again a question of compromise (resources, skills, …).

  >2. Why, when MySQL is so heavily used on Linux and Solaris, would you write an application for MySQL that can only be run on Windows? Every MySQL DBA that I know uses either OSX or Linux or OpenSolaris for a desktop.

  As I wrote, I agree with you on this point. Having a cross platform application is much better and we are working to add support for other platforms. Nevertheless, I think today it’s easy to work with different O.S.s at the same time, thanks to virtualization technologies.

  >Making a MySQL related application use windows seems like a slap in the face to me.

  I got your point Matt and I agree with you. Frankly, I can’t understand why this should be a slap in your face.

  We can’t neglect that today we do have a market for windows applications for MySQL.

  I think it’s just a question of different business models.

  >3. Why, in the age of Open Source, would you create a product with so many different tiers of licensing?

  I’m not sure I understood you point here.

  It is true that we have several Editions of our software. Now, each Edition has it own price and Users can choose their Editions on the basis of their needs (differentiations).

  If they want only database administration features (e.g. website Esers who only needs to write queries and create database objects) then they can choose the Enterprise Edition.
  If they are oriented only to Server Administration (users management, replication, cluster, tuning etc..) then they can choose the Pro or Audit Pro Edition.
  If they want both database administration and server administration and monitoring features, then they can choose the Network Edition, our all-in-one Edition.

  No yearly fee are demanded. Users pay a una tantum license fee and they get all minor updates for free (version 1.1.x, 1.2.x, …). Furthermore, they can use the software forever and they are not obliged to upgrade if they don’t want. We only think to ask them to pay a discount fee when (and if) they want to upgrade to major versions (from 1.x to 2.x or from 2.x from 3.x)

  This is very standard license policy for commercial applications.

  As per Open Source vs Closed source model, I got your point. Please find below more details on my vision.

  >Call me an obnoxious open-source advocate, but I firmly believe that ALL software should be free.

  I am an open-source advocate too and I don’t believe that ALL software should be free. I believe that our world is too complex for having one-way visions and that, in general, it is possible to find good compromises between open source and closed source software as well as between different business models.

  I think that when users have the possibility to choose between different solutions and approaches, then they are more happy, in the same manner you can be happy to have the possibility to choose between two or more colors, when buying a car.

  I don’t think Users wants only free software. Instead I firmly believe that Users are happy to pay for software and services as well as using free and open source software. Again, I think this is demonstrated by the market and by the fact that different business models are possible (oracle and MySQL coexist, for instance). In general, we can say that users are happy to pay when they want to save time or cut learning-curves.

  I am not just talking on the basis of marketing researches. I am not just a developer, but an user too, and I experienced happiness after paying (and got solved a problem), on my own.

  >If you use MySQL and you use Linux – you best be contributing back with 100% free code.

  I totally agree with you.
  I feel me as a member of the MySQL community and I am also a fun of Sun and OpenSolaris. I can’t image a world without open source software. And, in particular, I can’t image a world without Sun and the MySQL community because that’s one of the things I do like the most in our industry.

  Also my Company tries to support MySQL, even if we have a different business model (so far).

  Of course, I have to be honest and admit a small contradiction here. What I can tell you is that our vision is quite big and it requires time to put it in practice.

  >To do otherwise, in my eyes, is selfish.

  I’m sorry to say that this is the only point I don’t agree with you. I think in fact that being an open source contributor means being selfish, and not the contrary!
  We can start a discussion on what are the reasons why Users contribute on open source projects. Of course I admit that there are numerous reasons and being an open source advocate means many things.

  Nevertheless, I think one of the ultimate reason for Users to contribute to an open source project is egoism. In fact, Users want to see their name in the credits. They want to demonstrate they are smarter then many other users by providing valuable feedback and contributions.

  >It also drives away possible users and testers that might have helped make your product a success.

  I totally agree with you. Releasing an open source software has many advantages. One of them, is the point cited by you and that is a very important point!

  >All of that ranting aside, I think HoneyMonitor looks like a great product. The features are impressive and the screenshots look great.

  Thank you for the feedback.

  >The problem is that I’ll never get to use anything other than the free version – and then not even that because it’s for windows and I am not using windows.

  HoneyMonitor is still beta software but I hope you can get a chance to test it, in a future. Try the Network Edition, the free Edition is a light Edition.

  Regards,

  Santo Leto
  CTO, HoneySoftware.

• #2 by admin on 2009/04/13 - 10:52 am

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  @Santo

  Thanks for the long reply to my blog post. It’s nice to have developers discuss their reasons even when we don’t agree on all things.

  So, to answer your question about the business model; there isn’t one. I work for a SaaS provider and write Kontrollbase as my personal project – I also use it at work of course. However, the main purpose of it is to provide the community with a free alternative to expensive monitoring solutions. I want people to always have the ability to get free software no matter what. I almost never pay for software, and I expect that as long as I am giving back to the community then I can freely take from it as well. I know a lot of people don’t like that idea, that there should be things that cost money and things that don’t – but I don’t agree with any points I’ve heard thus far about software costing money. I think services should cost money, so if you were going to attach a business model to Kontrollbase it would the the SaaS model. The app is free to use and own, but if you want me to run your monitoring infrastructure and take care of your databases then that service is at a cost – but if you want to do it yourself with my application then so be it. I think that model not only empowers people to learn how to do things themselves, which makes the community stronger, but also allows people to get a nice paycheck for things they are good at. I mean, we don’t pay for linux yet we all make money because we know how to use it and that’s what we have on our servers.

  The fee-based software and licensing topic is a bit of a sore one for me to discuss because I can get rather worked up about it. The pinnacle of that model is Microsoft, I cannot express quite how much I hate them. I hate that their products are expensive, poorly designed compared to the free alternatives, their shady marketing, their monopolistic approach to technology, their bullying of vendors, and the the fact that I have to run windows on my laptop because we use Exchange at the office and no other apps will let me access the mail server because of the limitations of MAPI and our directory service. They keep things closed source to control the market all the while making me use applications on an OS that I cannot stand. That was why Honey Monitor requiring windows seems like a slap in the face. It’s not you slapping me in the face, it’s having to use windows again that slaps me.

  So, ranting aside, I just feel overall that every app should be cross platform unless there’s a vendor specific need – say, an app for OSX that interfaces with the filesystem and manages data, or a windows app that manages user accounts, or a linux app that watches for kernel module changes. You get the point. Anything else should be cross platform so everyone can enjoy it. In addition, the open source model allows everyone to just have move fun and get involved.